Godzilla: Desolation of China
by imabench
Summary: (Paused) A 57 year old photographer from Japan (OC) down on his luck is sent to Shanghai on an assignment when the King of Monsters attacks, bringing down skyscrapers and society itself. Realizing he's in an incredibly unique position, the photographer pursues the Kaiju, while trying to not be killed by it or the remnants of society around him (Legendary Godzilla wit 1 other power
1. Chapter 1 of 12: Hayou Mitiori

My name is Hayou Mitiori, and my life is not one many people would aspire for. I am 57 years old with bad ankles, 5 foot 7, and very bald except for what little grey hair still grows just above my ears. I've been married for 34 years and unhappy for close to 31 of them. I have 2 kids who are grown adults, Shima and Ryuu, and neither one likes to talk to me. I grew up in rural Japan and served in the military reserves for 12 years, before being discharged without a pension because my intoxicated officer got in a scuffle with me, and then successfully blamed it on me to his superiors to avoid losing his military career. Many other misfortunes in my life were not the result of me being an alcoholic or lacking commitment towards my dreams, even though I did drink and didn't have many aspirations. Instead, my misfortunes in life were mostly caused by me making poor decisions or having bad luck, and then being too stubborn to de-commit from them by believing that eventually, it would work out the way I initially expected.

A 'misguided optimist' would be the best way to put it.

Of all the bad decisions I've made in life, perhaps my biggest mistake was devoting my career to the 'Kyoto Sun', a small-scale newspaper operating out of Kyoto that prided itself on covering stories more successful papers didn't care to give coverage. They needed a photographer who needed a job, and I had a camera and needed a job. For 23 years I worked for the newspaper which oversaw several corporate buyouts, sizable layoffs, and repeated pay cuts. I never tried to switch to a different newspaper, because for the longest time I believed that after every change and major setback, things would finally turn around for the better.

They never did.

After a while, my stubbornness to sticking to my mistakes transitioned into resignation that these bad things happen inevitably, and that it was pointless to de-commit from them because it would just cause more bad things to happen. I could have changed my life many times in recent years, but whenever those opportunities presented themselves, I saw them as a choice between 'crappy present' vs 'even worse future'. So for the past several years I committed to the bad constants in my life, such as my marriage and my job. The alternative would always be somehow worse then the current state of things. I didn't 'know' it would be worse, I only knew that based on my past life experiences they would by all likelihood be worse then the way things were presently.

This didn't make me a 'pessimist' though. Pessimists believe that the worst thing will happen in every scenario and only ever see the negative qualities in things. Instead, I am better classified as a 'defeatist', someone who expects to fail or is excessively ready to accept failure.

I could see the good in society and the good intentions people had for others, I just accepted that good fortune would never happen to me. That my attempts to go out of my way to acquire good fortune would only leave me worse off then before.

* * *

On August 18, 2018 I was given an assignment by my boss to photograph overcrowded housing situations in Shanghai. I was the only person on the staff who spoke any Chinese, which I learned while in the army reserves almost 20 years ago, so I was always the selected to go to China whenever a potential story there came up. It would only be a 2 day assignment where I would fly out, get pictures of what I needed, and fly back as soon as I could. In the spare time I had, I would try to meet up with an old associate of mine who was a semi-successful broker of historical items, Hua Ghenka. I had some old items I inherited from my father that could be of value, and Hua was the guy who would give me the best price for them.

Thanks to the explosion of wealth in China, numerous millionaires and billionaires have clamored to the top of Chinese society and seek to outdo each other in whatever way they could. Some became politicians, others built skyscrapers, and some used their newfound wealth to purchase whatever historical item they could get their hands on. Japanese items made just before WWII were almost the most valuable of all, because many items from this time period were destroyed following the bombing of Japan in WWII. Also because deep-seeded hatred between China and Japan prevented the flow of cultural items between the countries only until very recently, creating an entire new market of items for the Chinese ultra-wealthy to claim for themselves in order to one-up each other.

My father, before he died, happened to get his hands on two 1933 Kwanon cameras, the first successful camera produced by Japan by the company that would eventually became Canon. One of them still functioned and was in very good condition, and the other was a complete mess but still retained its original components. 2 pieces of valuable Pre-WW2 Japanese history like these would fetch some good money in China, though I could never know for sure how much. After incredible amounts of nagging from my wife, who always pestered me to sell of my fathers possessions for whatever money we could, I finally agreed to bring them to Hua and see what I could get for them. If all went well, it would be a nice and easy assignment that would also allow me to put a little more money in my pocket when I returned home.

Not much went according to plan after I landed in Shanghai. In fact, nothing in the world could have prepared me for what would happen in Shanghai.


	2. Chapter 2 of 12: Landfall

(9:40am. Phone call with wife, Shin-Wae)

 **Shin-Wae** : "Why did you only bring the cameras? You have so much other crap from your father you could have sold too!"  
 **Me** : "First, the paper put me on a budget airline that prices the hell out of any extra bags you bring with you-"  
 **Shin-Wae** : "You could have paid $40 now to make $200 or more later! So short-sighted..."  
 **Me** : "-And second, just because my father had old stuff, it doesn't mean it's valuable"  
 **Shin-Wae** : "Oh so now you're an expert on selling historical items? In that case you don't even have to bother meeting with your broker friend"  
 **Me** : "Shin-Wae..."  
 **Shin-Wae** : "Are you using wifi right now? Please tell me you're not using up all our data by calling me from China!"  
 **Me** : "I'm on wifi yes, I was calling you to let you know I made it safe"  
 **Shin-Wae** : "Call me when you sell the camera's, let me know how much money we get"

(Hangs up)

(9:44am. Phone call with broker friend, Hua Ghenka)

 **Ghenka** : "Hello?"  
 **Me** : "Is this your personal phone or your business phone? I'm sorry, I don't have it in the contact info"  
 **Ghenka** : "Don't worry about it! You're a friend, so you call my personal phone. You landed alright?"  
 **Me** : "Yeah I landed a while ago. I'm at a coffee house in Century Park because the airport wifi was acting weird."  
 **Ghenka** : "That's good to hear, I have some great news!"  
 **Me** : "Hit me"  
 **Ghenka** : "Those two cameras you have, the 1933 Kwanon's, they could be worth $8,000! Maybe even $10,000!  
 **Me** : "Get the %#& out of here"  
 **Ghenka** : "If the one is in as good of a shape as you claim it is, it could set a new record"  
 **Me** : "Does the second one that is busted have interest as well?"  
 **Ghenka** : "Even if the second one just gets sold for parts, the parts themselves are very valuable as well. 1933 Kwanon camera parts don't show up on the market very often"  
 **Me** : "That's incredible. I'll bring them over to you in later tonight"  
 **Ghenka** : "I'll drive up from Fuzhou and meet you in Hangzhou, will give you the exact location later"  
 **Me** : "I'll call you if that's ok, I have to be careful with how I use my data"  
 **Ghenka** : "Sounds good, can't wait! Enjoy your stay!"  
 **Me** : "Will do"

(Hangs up)

* * *

In an effort to fight overcrowding, the Chinese government implemented population caps in Beijing and Shanghai, with other cities likely to follow. City and government officials would use whatever authority they could legally wield to demolish shops and housing of low-income areas, and then try to build up the new areas with more spacious and expensive housing. Basically drive out people in order to drive in wealth. The program was only recently implemented however, so when an area of overcrowded housing was demolished, people would just jump to other area's and live wherever they could, making the crowding problem even worse in some areas. The most prevalent location of overcrowded housing was along south Shanghai, which is where I was heading.

Then it attacked.

* * *

(Taxi cab pulls up)

 **Me** : "Can you take me to (looks at paper) Zhujingzhen?"  
 **Driver** : "Why the %$ do you want to go to that dump? A tourist like you would enjoy their time much more at-"  
 **Me** : "I'm a reporter from Japan covering a story. Can you take me there?"  
 **Driver** : "(Heavy sigh) Sure, get in"

(Hops into the cab, pulls away from Century Park)

 **Driver** : "So what story is there in Zhujingzhen? Only thing they have over there is people and shacks"  
 **Me** : "That's what I'm here to report on. Overcrowding in Shanghai. I heard the outskirts of the city was where its the worst, is that correct?"  
 **Driver** : "Yes that's correct. Government started with the areas most tourists encounter first, pushing people towards the city limits. Won't be long before they get them over there as well."  
 **Me** : "Would you happen to know where the worst areas are?"  
 **Driver** : "I live in Tinglinzhen just east of Zhujingzhen, its definitely pretty bad over there. I can take you to the worst area, but only for a few minutes. I dont want to get robbed over there"  
 **Me** : "That's perfect. I'll only need 15, maybe 20 minutes at most"

A light turned green just in front of us and the driver sped up, trying to get around the other stopped cars and have the road in front of him to himself. As we crossed the intersection though, another car plowed into the side of the car from the left, T-boning us and sending us sideways. A car behind him also ran into the back of him, pushing us further forward and towards the sidewalk, where pedestrians just barely got out of the way in time.

Relatively unharmed, I unbuckled my seatbelt and got out of the car, lots of commotion going on outside. Apart from my neck being jarred I was ok, the driver probably got the worst of it. Stepping outside to look at the damage, it wasn't just us who was involved in a crash. Several cars all around were drifting into each other as if all their brakes had been cut. Some pulled off into open area's of sidewalk to bump into streetlights and stop, other cars bumped into even slower cars, causing mayhem all around. The traffic lights, which had been green just moments earlier, were all dark going all ways.

"It's a damn blackout" one pedestrian said.  
"Goodness, look at all the cars that crashed" said another.  
"If it were a blackout wouldn't it just be the traffic lights that were out?"

From the front of the cab my driver got out, bleeding from his head due to shattered glass from the window.

 **My Driver** : "The light turned red %##hole!"  
 **Other Driver** : "I tried to stop but my damn brakes wouldn't work!"  
 **My Driver** : "They better not have otherwise you'll be paying for this lawsuit yourself!"  
 **3rd Driver** : "I tried to stop in time but my brakes wouldn't work!"  
 **Other Driver** : "Yours didn't work either?"  
 **My Driver** : "No way that both of your brakes suddenly stopped working. Learn to drive!"

I pulled out my cellphone to try to call someone. The police, my broker friend, my boss, my wife... Okay not my wife, but I felt the need to call someone, anyone. Pulling out my phone though, it was dead, even though I charged it this morning and the entire time on the plane with the USB port from the armrest.

The traffic lights weren't working, cars weren't working, cellphones weren't working. Not just they weren't working, they all were completely dead.

 _Whatever was happening, it was much more serious then a blackout_

 **Me** : "Are you okay?  
 **My Driver** : "I think so. Not the first time some $%#head plowed into my car"  
 **Me** : "Don't worry I'm fine. I cant call authorities though because my phone is dead"  
 **Other Driver** : "Yeah mine is dead too"  
 **Pedestrian** : "What the hell, is everything down right now?"

I looked around at everyone around me. People inside shops were fiddling with machines and their electronics to no avail. Outside, drivers of stopped cars were arguing with each other while those walking around stopped and struggled with their phones. Looking at the buildings, no lights were on in any of the windows while lights that lit up signs had gone dark.

Then there was screaming.

Looking towards the screams, people looked up in horror. A helicopter was falling out of the sky from a high altitude several blocks away, spinning wildly out of control as if it suddenly had no pilot. People watched as the helicopter continued to fall, before other buildings blocked the view. A short time later, a medium sized boom echoed across the streets, and people knew the worst had happened.

 **Pedestrian** : "What the hell is going on?"  
 **Different Pedestrian** : "Is this an attack?"

Nobody knew what was going on or what to do. Attempts at rebooting equipment were fruitless, and people attempting to restart their cars were out of luck. While some people took solace in being with friends or at a place they frequently visited, whether it be their office or a coffee joint, I was completely on my own. No phone, no lifeline, and my closest friend being almost 2 and a half hours away, not knowing what just happened here.

 **Me** : "Hey driver!"  
 **My Driver** : "What?"  
 **Me** : "Where do tourists and visitors go during events like this?"  
 **My Driver** : "I don't have any idea. Walk to a police station if you're hurt, or your hotel if you're not"  
 **Me** : "My hotel is almost 10 blocks from here!"  
 **My Driver** : "Then you better start walking"

While it would be typical for an old man like me to complain about walking at an inconvenient time when so many other people were in way worse situations due to whatever event was taking place, I had very bad ankles that prevented me from being able to walk almost anywhere in a normal amount of time. What could be a 3 hour walk for some people could easily take me the entire day, and if I didn't stop to rest every couple of minutes my ankles would swell up to the size of a grapefruit.

Then it hit me. _I'm a reporter_. I'm a reporter standing right smack in the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world that is going through some sort of super-blackout. The Huangpu river that the heart of Shanghai was centered around was just 3 blocks west of me.

Before I went anywhere I reached in my carry-on bag to check on one thing. In addition to the two camera's I was going to sell to my friend, I also had my official camera I used for work, a Nikon D500 that was a workhorse of a camera. It was the only piece of equipment that the paper agreed to foot the cost for, and I was told to guard it with my life and make sure it is always operational in case something truly extraordinary took place when I happened to be nearby.

I pulled it out and tried to turn it on. It was dead.

After cursing under my breath for some time, I calmed down and re-evaluated my options. The hotel was still 8 blocks away, which would take me the whole day to get to thanks to my bad ankles. The middle of the city was 3 blocks away, but my camera wasn't working. If I was going to be able to report anything, it could only be through a first-hand account of what I could see for myself. If worse comes to worse I could observe the heart of the city, try to get a hotel close by, and then try to explain the extra costs to my boss whenever I made it back to Kyoto.

If I walked to the hotel I was originally booked in, I would get less of a story to report back to my boss, and I might also miss my meeting with Hua Ghenka. An old man walking around with thousands of dollars worth of camera's all alone in Shanghai would not be ideal either.

At about 10:26am I made up my mind. I started heading towards the center of the city, keeping notes in my head of everything I would see.

* * *

The closer I made my way to the center of the city, the more that the scenes blended together. Cars scattered on the roads with bumps, scratches, and cracked windshields everywhere. People on the sidewalks trying to head home, and businesses that didn't allow their employees to leave trying to restart their equipment to no avail. The helicopter that was seen crashing to the ground landed a few blocks north of me, but without a camera to photograph the crash there wasn't much point to seeing it. The only things that could be heard came from people walking by and some distant rumblings.

By the time I made it to the financial center, home to some of the tallest and most iconic skyscrapers in the world, the view was much the same as the ones I observed earlier. Some people were leaving towers and businesses to try to make their way elsewhere, but others who relied on the subways or taxi's for transport waited outside, unable to go anywhere else. Police officers in the streets tried to move cars out of the way to clear a path along the roads, while others looked out for looters and anyone else who looked suspicious. It was almost 11am and apart from the blackout, nothing else was happening. Initial fears that what was going on was some sort of terrorist attack died down. I rested on a nearby bench and observed what I could.

Only two things really stood out to me while I was there. The first was that the sky was clear. The blackout affected every building and car in Shanghai, so all the pollution that normally spewed into the air was eliminated. The handful of times I passed through Shanghai in the past were episodes of crippling pollution, I almost had to wear a surgical mask just to be breathe. Now though, the sky was clear, and the air rich with natural elements.

The second thing I noticed were the distant rumblings. The sound of the helicopter crashing made one large boom that echoed through the city streets before dying out completely. These other rumblings I could barely hear though were almost constant, as if some distant construction site drilling into bedrock was untouched by the blackout and was able to keep working. Once in a while it would stop, and then pick up again, and then stop again.

The noise died down again after a period of activity, and this time it stayed quiet. I rested on the bench for a little while longer for my ankles plotting what to do next. If I trailed a police officer around I might be accused of suspicious activity and detained, which I wanted to avoid because Chinese police had a history of abusing older Japanese visitors in major cities. Plus I could easily observe a couple different officers from where I was.

 _"THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE RIVER!"_

The woman who yelled it out did so in a frantic and panicking manner. Several police took notice and a few immediately investigated, along with one or two onlookers. Most of the locals though didn't bat an eye, because the Huangpu river that ran through China was one of the most polluted rivers in the world. Just 4 years ago, the river made headlines after 12 thousand pig carcasses showed up in the river in 2013, and dozens of smaller incidents of weird stuff being in the river also popped up in newspapers from time to time.

The commotion didn't die down though. More and more people began talking or looking over, and a steady stream of people made their way towards the riverbank to see what was causing the commotion. First it was one or two people at a time, then it became 10. Then 15. Then 20. With the reporter instincts in me kicking into high curiosity and my ankles no longer hurting like hell, I begrudgingly stood up and made my way over to the river to see what was going on. Perhaps the massive blackout caused some sort of system upstream to fail, spilling its storage into the river in a horrific sight.

 _I could only wish that were the case._

The Huangpu river is 1,300 feet wide and 100 feet deep. Due to heavy pollution, only barges and ferries are ever seen on the river, with cruise ships and freighters sticking closer to the coast. What was swimming through the river in the middle of Shanghai at 11:07am was no barge or ferry though.

\- The first thing that you noticed about it were the dorsal fins. Protruding through the water by 10 feet, the sight of so many of them so close together was alarming to say the least.

\- The second thing you noticed was the speed. Barges moved about 10 mph, these were going almost 40mph. No engine or combination of engines in the world could power that many dorsal fins to go through the water at that speed. Even submarines topped out at 40mph maximum, and that was due in part to their sleek design.

\- The third thing you noticed was the displacement of the water. The waves from slow moving barges and ferries would cause ripples that brushed up against the shore. The thing in the water though was displacing so much water that in many places, the wake it left behind spilled up over the river banks, showering people standing nearby in polluted river water.

It was fast, it was huge, and it looked almost alien.

As the thing moved past the financial district and kept moving upriver, it suddenly veered to the left and started heading for the river bank. The sudden change of course immediately caused people along the shore all around me to panic, and people started running. Police immediately began yelling at everyone and moved people away from the shore at once. A few people got trampled in the panic.

Those who were stupid enough to stay put to get a better look at the thing, including me, received a front row seat when it finally emerged from the water.

About 100 feet from the edge, its head came up. A horrifying, reptilian, armored tank of a beast with an incredibly angry look on its face. It stood 40 feet off the ground. Then 80 feet. Then 150 feet. Then 200. It kept growing taller. As it stood on its hind legs in about 40 feet of water, It looked as tall as almost any skyscraper in all of Shanghai.

Too busy marveling at its height, I was caught completely off guard when the beast roared, signaling its declaration of war on the city. To say the roar was deafening would be an understatement. The sheer impact of the sound waves rattled me to my core and made me fall down in a heap, causing every part of my body to immediately ache.

With just one battle cry, the beast almost managed to cripple me.

I was dazed during the immediate aftermath of the first roar. I could barely remember everyone running for their lives. I could barely remember the beast stepping almost over me as it made its way onshore. What I did remember, was the first skyscraper it took down.

* * *

The Oriental Pearl Tower, one of the most identifiable buildings in the Shanghai and the entire world, stood closest to the river where Godzilla emerged. Standing 1500 feet tall at its tip and looking most comparable to Seattle's Space Needle, the building was taller than the beast by almost 1000 feet. It made its way right towards the tower with hell-raising intent in its mind.

As I watched from the distance, still trying to recover from its roar, people fled in all directions like roaches in a room when a light is suddenly turned on. Whatever crack or crevice they could wedge themselves behind, they hid behind it. Some hid under tables and benches, others went into lobbies of nearby towers seeking refuge.

The beast made its way towards the tower and looked up, as if it were sizing it up. Inhaling as much as it could, the beast let out another declaration of war, causing windows and eardrums to shatter all around. What happened next wold be etched into my memory until the day I died.

In one graceful swoop, the beast whipped around, striking the Oriental Pearl Tower with its tail just above the lower 'ball' as people called it. The narrow skyscraper's weakest point was the center of the building just above this structure, and the beast sliced through it with the force of a missile strike.

The top of the tower, with people still at the upper levels deciding to wait out the blackout rather then take hundreds of stairs to the bottom, plummeted to the ground sideways. The antenna of the tower, which stood 400 feet above the top floor of the tower, substantially damaged a nearby tower as it came to the ground.

With one physical attack, the beast had erased one of the most iconic landmarks of the world and killed hundreds of people.

It was at this point that my senses finally began to come back to me. I could hear the twisting and clashing of metal as the skyscraper hit the ground, I could hear the screams of people who witnessed the attack, and I could hear the panic in people's voices as they desperately tried to use their radios or cellphones to no avail. The nearest path across the river away from the beast was directly east of me, the Yan'an Road tunnels that both went one way towards the heart of the financial center. Using a nearby railing to stay steady on my buckling knees, I slowly made my way towards the tunnels while the giant beast set its sights on its next target.

Using its enormous body strength, or its enormous weight depending on your angle of view, the beast leveled what was left of the Oriental Pearl Tower as people continued to run for their lives. From there, the beast's gaze drifted towards the next tallest structure it could find. Or rather, the next 3.

Maybe 7 minutes by foot away, the 3 tallest buildings in Shanghai stood in triangular formation right next to each other. The deceivingly hexagonal shaped Jim Mao tower at 1,400 feet tall, the contouring Shanghai World Financial Tower at 1,600 feet, and the twisting Shanghai Tower at a neck-aching 2,070 feet tall. Next to all of them, the beast looked minuscule, topping out at 350 feet tall on dry land.

Making my way towards the tunnel, I fully regained control in my knees and feet. I wasn't able to run, but I was able to walk at an above average speed compared to before. The smoke and debris rising from the crater that used to be the Oriental Pearl Tower was slowly proliferating throughout the area. I made it about halfway to the tunnel when I heard the beast roar a third time, this time facing the towers rather than directly at me when it first emerged from the water.

I looked back. Out of fear, out of curiosity, or out of awe. I'm not sure which. In between the gaps of lesser skyscrapers spared by the monster, the back of the beast was beginning to illuminate. The fins along its tail and its back started glowing brighter, as if it were reflecting tremendous amounts of sunlight except with a blue hue to it. The light soon illuminated the beast's entire back, and it roared once again.

This war was not brief, as it was the first couple of times I heard it. Instead, this roar was sustained, and lasted for several seconds rather instead of just 5 or 6 seconds when it declared its intent for destruction. As it roared, a bolt of light emerged from its mouth and blasted the base of the nearest building, the Jim Mao Tower. I could not quite see what it was doing to the tower due to the brightness, but the sounds of screeching metal and explosive-combustion gave me a good idea of what was happening.

As the beast continued to roar, it slowly rotated its head, directing its beam through the base of the tower and then towards the other towers. The Jim Mao Tower took the brunt of it, then the Shanghai Tower behind it got blasted, followed by the Shanghai World Financial Tower to the left.

The Jim Mao Tower fell first, sliding backwards due to the angle at which the beast cut through its base with its attack. The collapse of the tower caused the Shanghai Tower behind it to fall over to its right, on top of the Jim Mao Tower that cratered the ground right next to it. The Shanghai World Financial Tower followed suit, collapsing to its right onto the other two buildings besides it.

As horrifying as the attack on the Oriental Pearl Tower was in the first place, where the beast erased one world landmark and killed hundreds, the beast managed to top itself only minutes later. Three of the tallest buildings in the world all were demolished in a matter of seconds, and thousands of people still inside were wiped out. I didn't know it at the time, but with these 2 attacks, the monster managed to kill 9,486 people in a matter of seconds, over 3 times the number killed in the 9/11 attacks in America.

By the time I made it to the tunnel, the beast had charged up its attack a second time, and fired at a variety of skyscrapers still standing in the area. Some of them collapsed, others had the top halves of them fall off to the side and impact other buildings. Hundreds more were killed. Every minute, a new massacre committed.

The sidewalks through the tunnel, normally wide and open for the amount of foot traffic heading to and from the financial district, were littered with crashed cars and scrap metal. The sudden blackout had hit right during rush hour, causing absolute carnage in the tunnels. Police officers in the tunnels were still trying to rescue people who were pinned in their cars while trying to move others out of the way to clear a path.

As I meandered my way through the cars, the impact of what was happening right now really hit home. A 350 foot monster one way or another caused a massive blackout in the city that effected cars, buildings, phones and anything electrical. It then made its way up the largest river in Shanghai and in a matter of minutes demolished 4 of the tallest buildings in the city.

And I was right in the middle of it.

Panic gripped people in the tunnel as they debated where to go, what to do, and where to hide. Some felt that being in the tunnel was safest since the beast was clearly aiming for towers, others felt they were in danger in case the beast made its way back into the river and stepped on the tunnel, which would easily have crushed it. Others were more concerned trying to fix their phones and wondering what happened to loved ones, all while explosions and roars from outside echoed through the walls. People who made it out of the skyscrapers and their collapse filtered their way into the tunnels as well, hoping to cross to the other side towards safety.

 _Then the footsteps came._

I couldn't see it at the time, being almost halfway through the tunnel, but after the beast outside had leveled every structure taller than itself, it surveyed the land around it looking for its next targets. Following the towers in the financial district, the tallest structures in Shanghai were luxury hotels and apartment towers, located in more residential areas of the city.

 _Areas across the river from the financial center._

As the footsteps grew louder and the sound of demolished steel being crushed under incredible weight grew closer, the people in the tunnel began to panic. Many rushed deeper into the tunnel, others wedged themselves between crashed cars hoping to shield themselves from a possible fire attack. I regained full control over my body and was able to move quicker than usual, but that isn't saying much for a 59 year old man with bad ankles. People rushed past me, bumping me and almost knocking me over as the beast outside drew nearer.

The sound of water sloshing outside was the unmistakable sound that the beast was crossing through the river to the other side. It moved behind us, then almost on top of us, then just east of us, then past us.

Everyone in the tunnel was a little relieved, until the water came.

The massive weight and body size of the beast, entering the river so close to the entrance and exits of the tunnels pushed hundreds of tons of water out of the river and onto the shore, a majority of which was swallowed by the nearby tunnels that led back below sea level.

The water came in from both sides. Keep in mind, there was still a blackout effecting everything electrical, so the tunnel was dark apart from the sunlight entering from the openings. When both the openings suddenly started being filled with water though, the tunnel got dark fairly quickly, especially for someone whose eyesight is typical for that of a 59 year old.

The water first got the soles of my shoes, then my ankles, then it was almost to my knees. Panicked screams filled the tunnels and echoed all around, it was a nightmare scenario. I bumped into a crashed car next to me and tried to get up on the hood. It was a struggle due to my weak upper-arm strength, the lack of light, and the water trying to sweep me deeper into the tunnel. By the time I got on the hood, the water was already above the headlights. I got onto the roof of the car, but the water kept coming.

The Yan'an tunnels do not go below the river and then continue to a flat line until it rises upwards to the other side. Instead the tunnels are curved in a gradual 'U' shape with the middle being the deepest point below the river, making it the absolute worst place to be in the event of a flooding, almost right where I was.

The water kept rising, and soon was up to my wrists and feet as I crouched on the hood of the car. There was a truck right next to me that was about a foot taller then the car I was on. If the water kept rising, it would sweep me off the car and towards the deepest part of the tunnel. If I swam to the truck at an angle, the current would bring me to the truck and make me a bit safer. The water kept rising fast. I couldn't think about it for a moment longer before I lost my grip, so I went for it.

 _I drastically underestimated how cold the water was._

The shock of the water paralyzed me just enough to be swept past the truck I was hoping to climb on, and I headed deeper into the tunnel. It was cold, and it was dark. I was not a strong swimmer either, so I barely kept my head above the freezing water. Ping-ponging off of submerged cars I couldn't see coming also didn't help. The water pushed me on top of a car that was floating in the tunnel, an air pocket inside pushing it upwards as the tide came in. The roof of the tunnel was 3 feet above me, but it only felt like 6 inches.

I was now in the middle of the tunnel, at the deepest part, with water rushing in all around, being pressed into the ceiling. I was freezing, and I couldn't see anything. I could taste the pollution in the water, feel its frigid coldness, and hear the cries and screams of other people being swept into the tunnel with me.

Then I blacked out.

* * *

By the time I had woken up, several hours had passed. I was in a hospital, but not in a room. I was down in the reception area in a makeshift stretcher with people all around me. The lights were on, people were moving everywhere, organized mayhem compared to before.

A nearby nurse noticed me grunting in pain as I moved around.

 **Nurse** : "Sir are you feeling alright"  
 **Me** : "What- Where am I?"  
 **Nurse** : "Renji Hospital. You were pulled out of the flooded tunnel with severe hypothermia and minor injuries. Are you feeling ok?"  
I groaned, then nodded. "I'll be okay. Just bruised."  
 **Nurse** : "I know this is a difficult time, but we do have many patients who need treatment. Are you able to move? Can you have someone pick you up?"  
 **Me** : "I can walk. There is no need for me to stay"  
 **Nurse** : "Ok. Your things are in your bag right here, just let someone know when you leave"  
 **Me** : "My things?"

The entire time I had been running from that monster, it never once occurred to me to make sure I had all my things with me. I could have left it by the river bank, I could have lost it in the tunnel, I could have lost it when they pulled me out of the tunnel.

 _Oh no, did the cameras suffer water damage?_

I immediately shuffled around in my bag for the cameras. The clothes were soaked and smelled like piss, but luckily I had put both cameras into individual plastic bags incase it started raining. Just to make sure, I pulled the camera that functioned out of the bag. It was still in solid condition. No water got in the bags, nothing was dented, there weren't even any smudge marks.

I was relieved. I didn't have many memories with my father, who died in the war fighting for Japan, but one of the things he did with me was allow me to use the camera to take all kinds of pictures with it. He taught me everything about photography even though he was only an amateur himself. He told me who made the camera's, what kind of film they used, what 'analog' means, how to take care of the camera...

...

...

...

...

You know those moments you have when a sudden revelation makes you pause everything you are doing, physically and mentally, so you could really process the information? This was one of those moments.

The beast, which they were calling 'Godzilla' on the tv's playing in the reception room, temporarily knocked out everything that was electrical within a several mile radius. Everything went out before he came, then after he left, everything rebooted and turned back on. In an age when everything is run wirelessly, plugged in, or hooked up to some sort of electricity, the simple arrival of the beast effectively shuts down entire cities.

But as I looked at the camera in my hands, I remembered one of the things my father told me about it.

...

...

...

...

 _"This is an analog camera Hayou, be very careful with it"_  
 _"It's so cool dad! What does 'analog' mean?"_  
 _"'Analog' is a fancy word meaning that this camera uses very small parts that all have to work together to take pictures"_  
 _"You mean like the refrigerator?"_  
 _He laughed. "No, not quite... You see, refrigerators need power to keep food cold, it needs electricity to work. But an analog camera-"_

...

...

...

...

"-an analog camera doesn't need electricity to take pictures" I remembered... Then everything fell into place.

1) The monster knocks out electricity in everything. It is impossible to photograph the monster with modern cameras since literally all modern cameras these days rely on microchips and electrical components to take photographs.

2) Analog cameras do not rely on electricity to function. They only need the right type of film and all its working parts in order to take pictures, meaning im in possession of one of the few devices in all of China that could document this monster. So,

-Assuming that very few people know about this  
-Assuming that even fewer people actually own functioning analog cameras  
-And assuming that even fewer people would be crazy enough to go chasing after the monster that just destroyed an entire city

3) _**I may be the only person in all of China who is capable of photographing the monster**_

* * *

Deep inside me, there was a 'cavern' of sorts that was empty and extinguished. Long ago, this location inside me drove my will to pursue my passion and my dreams, but it had gone out a long time ago. It wilted thanks to my marriage, thanks to fatherhood, thanks to my job, and thanks to my age. After the light that drove those passions went out, I became resigned to accepting setbacks and defeats far more openly and frequently then before. I lost my urge to fight, my urge to resist, my urge to chase what I wanted

And then, after realizing the unique situation I was in, a little flicker of light popped into existence. It was just a little flame, barely big enough to light a candle. It was a pale orange dot in a dark cavern, a dot that looked like it could go back out just after it popped into existence. But it din't wilt. It did not extinguish back into nothingness. It grew, ever so slowly, before it blossomed into a little flame. The cavern was vast, and empty, void of heat and hope. But still, the little flame popped into existence, and was holding its own in the void, determined to survive. To thrive.

Maybe it was my desire to be a 'real' photographer, to chase a story I wanted to chase rather then have one assigned to me and then see what I could do with it. Maybe it was for some sort of self-validation, or to leave some sort of mark on society in what little time I might have left. Maybe it was my duty as a person to do whatever it took to possibly help others by doing what I knew best. Maybe it was something more primal such as the simple thrill of a chase or trying something new. I don't know what it was that triggered it, but whatever it was it got me.

The fire inside me was lit, and it was telling me one thing and one thing only. _Go._

I didn't know where, I didn't know why, or even how. I only knew that I had to chase it.

I had to go after Godzilla.


	3. Chapter 3 of 12: Anarchy

I checked out of the hospital and wandered into the street. The entrance to the hospital was mobbed with people trying to find loved ones, people trying to get care for themselves, and authorities trying to keep everyone from trampling each other. Electricity managed to be restored to parts of the city, though underground power cables taken down by collapsing skyscrapers still left vast areas in blackouts.

I pulled out my phone and turned it on. It whirred into action, with battery power at 89%, I immediately made two phone calls. One with my wife, the other with my friend

 **Shin-Wae** : "WHY HAVEN'T YOU CALLED?"  
 **Me** : "I just woke up from a coma"  
 **Shin-Wae** : "WHAT KIND OF MADE UP EXCUSE IS THAT?"  
 **Me** : "It's the truth, I was trapped in a tunnel that was flooding and blacked out"  
 **Shin-Wae** : "Are the cameras okay?"  
 **Me** : "Yes they are. I'm okay as well"  
 **Shin-Wae** : "You need to get on the next plane back to Kyoto right now before you get yourself killed!"  
 **Me** : "I don't think the airports even function right now, but I can call my friend Hua and ask him-"  
 **Shin-Wae** : "How do you know the airports aren't working? Do you see them for yourself or are you just assuming thing again?"  
 **Me** : "I'm going to call my friend Hua and have him get me. There's something that has come up and I won't be able to come home for a while"  
 **Shin-Wae** : "WHAT? You want to STAY in the country that just got ATTACKED?!"  
 **Me** : "It's difficult to explain, but yes"  
 **Shin-Wae** : "Hayou Mitiori if you have A SINGLE FUNCTIONING BRAIN CELL IN YOUR SKULL you will get on the next airplane out of Shanghai and GET YOUR A$$ HOME"  
 **Me** : "I'll try to call you later, I have to go"

(Hangs up)  
(Calls Hua Ghenka)

 **Me** : "Hua its me, you have a second?"  
 **Ghenka** : "Thank goodness you're alive! I was worried you were died! What happened?"  
 **Me** : "... You don't know?"  
 **Ghenka** : "Nobody does! All the news stations are down. The government has been censoring all news about the attack. Nobody knows anything except that something horrible happened and that 40,000 people are dead"  
 **Me** : "Did you say fourty THOUSAND?"

(Wife tries to call. I block it)  
 **  
Ghenka** : "Forty thousand AND CLIMBING. Only a nuclear bomb has killed more people in a single instance. What the hell happened?"  
 **Me** : "Before I tell you, I need a huge favor to ask from you"  
 **Ghenka** : "What is it?"  
 **Me** : "I know that you've helped me out in the past before, and that I haven't been able to repay you. I know I haven't been a particularly good frie-"  
 **Ghenka** : "Hayou, you're my friend. If you need me to help you I'll do it. For $%'s sake you were just in the middle of some sort of attack!"  
 **Me** : "Do you think you could come pick me up? I don't know anyone else in all of China, I don't have a car-"  
 **Ghenka** : "Say no more. I'll be there. Just try to get to your hotel and DON'T STAY OUTSIDE"

(Wife tries to call. I block it)

 **Me** : "The monster is gone, I don't have to worry about it"  
 **Ghenka** : "Monster? What monster?"  
 **Me** : "I'll explain when you get here, but basically you don't have to worry about me. I'm safe now"  
 **Ghenka** : "No you're not Hayou, you are in more danger than ever!"  
 **Me** : "What do you mean?"  
 **Ghenka** : "I don't know what has been going down in Shanghai, but everywhere else people are freaking out. People are trying to get gas, everyone's is trying to load up on food, banks are freezing withdrawals... Even ATM's are running dry. It's borderline anarchy out here, and if it's this bad out here its got to be way worse in Shanghai"

I never considered how the rest of society would react to news of a giant monster demolishing a city within minutes, but collapse of society itself seemed like a stretch even to me. Then again, there was similar worry after the Tokyo subway bombings and 9/11 attacks, so news of some monster killing 40,000 in Shanghai naturally would freak people out.

 **Me** : "I'll get to my hotel as quickly as I can and hole up there"

(Wife tries to call. I block it)

 **Ghenka** : "Good, I'll drive up there and meet you as soon as I can"  
 **Me** : "Wait, what about your family? Wouldn't leaving them by themselves in Fuzhou be putting them in danger?"  
 **Ghenka** : "They're vacationing in Cambodia right now, they're safer then either of us at this point"  
 **Me** : "Okay"  
 **Ghenka** : "Stay safe, I'll be there before you know it"  
 **Me** : "Okay"  
 **Ghenka** : "Tell me EVERYTHING once I get there, promise?"  
 **Me** : "Promise"  
 **Ghenka** : "Alright see you soon"  
 **Me** : "Thank you so much Hua. I'm forever in debt to you"

(Hangs up. Wife tries to call)

 _Will you learn to take a damn hint?_

(Blocks the call. Turns phone off)

* * *

My trip back to the hotel was a much darker experience compared to my initial trip to the middle of the city, both figuratively and literally. The once remarkable clear sky was blackened by smoke from collapsed buildings and fires set by the monster. In almost every direction you looked there was some sort of plume of smoke rising from the distance. Once the power kicked back on, ever downed power line or busted pipeline suddenly sprang into life, causing all sorts of fires mayhem to pop up all around the city, spilling black smoke into the skies above.

The damage in the streets of Shanghai was also more horrific then before. Along the Yan'an road near the hospital, the same road that led to the tunnels I almost drowned in, the monster crossed the river left a wide area of rubble and smashed concrete in its wake. After crossing the river, it had used the highway as a path towards other skyscrapers it decided to eradicate, leaving a shattered highway filled rubble and debris in its wake. It took me nearly 10 minutes just to cross the highway due to how much rubble and smashed cars were in the street. It also didn't help that the road had buckled under the incredible weight of the monster as it moved, turning the street into a literal canal of carnage.

After I crossed the road, I moved south along Zhongshan road, which moved parallel to the Huangpu river just to the east. From the banks of the river, you could see the ruins of the financial center on the other side, a tremendous haze sitting over the area due to the collapse of several mega skyscrapers in close proximity to each other. Since electrical items were working again, I was now able to use my professional camera to take pictures of the damage. I did not try to cross the river to get a firsthand view of the area itself though, because the only paths leading across the river nearby were all tunnels, many of which were still flooded and packed with abandoned cars. I wasn't particularly interested in risking death a second time, so I just took pictures from my own vantage point and continued to move south.

Just south of the financial district was Yanlord Garden, a residential area populated with apartment towers that now lied in ruin. Although I didn't know it at the time, the beast crossed back across the river to damage these areas after it had finished destroying everything on the other side of the river. It laid waste to this residential area, then continued moving east before going into the Pacific Ocean. As I moved south along the riverbed, I stopped to take pictures of the area.

Thats when I ran into the first bit of trouble.

"What the hell do you think you're doing man?"

I turned around behind me to see what was causing the commotion, and saw an incensed 30 year old man local looking directly at me

 **Guy** : "You taking pictures of those buildings like they're some sort of tourist site? People are DEAD in those buildings, have some respect!"  
 **Me** : "I'm so sorry I didn't mean any offense. I'm taking pictures for a newspaper I work for. I'm a reporter"  
 **Guy** : "Well take pictures of something else $&&hole, otherwise I'll take that camera and throw it into the river myself"  
 **Other Guy** : "Jin leave the guy alone"  
 **First Guy** : (Turns around) "No man %^&* this guy, he shouldn't be taking pictures of those buildings! You have family in those buildings!"  
 **Other Guy** : "He's just doing his job, he said he's a reporter"  
 **First Guy** : "Oh yeah?" (Turns back to face me) "What tv station you work for old man? The Senile Sentinel?"

I put my camera in my bag and attempted to move along.

 **Me** : "The Kyoto Sun, It's a small newspaper that most people have never heard of. I'll move along-"  
 **First Guy** : "Oh you're JAPANESE eh?"  
 **Second Guy** : "Easy Jin"  
 **First Guy** : "So a Japanese monster comes to attack a Chinese city and you want to take pictures of it for your Japanese newspaper like its just another day in Japan for you?"  
 **Me** : "Japanese monster?"  
 **First Guy** : "You're kind worships giant monsters like that. You call it 'Godzilla'"

I never was much of a movie fan and wasn't particularly knowledgable about youth culture. As hard as it is to believe that a Japanese person doesn't know about Godzilla, we do exist, much like how there are some Americans who don't know anything about Star Wars.

 **Second Guy** : "Sorry about him, we're all a little stressed out after what happened"  
 **First Guy** : "Tanka get your %&)(ing hands off me, I'm giving this guy a piece of my mind!"  
 **Me** : "I'm sorry about this. I'll move along. Have a nice day"  
 **Second Guy** : "Take care of yourself!"  
 **First Guy** : "Go %$# yourself!"

I scurried away as the second guy restrained the first guy, who proceeded on yelling all sorts of expletives both at myself and the other guy. I didn't know much about Godzilla or movie monsters, but if locals believe that the monster that attacked Shanghai is Japanese in origin, then it puts Japanese people like me in a dangerous situation. I decided to be more mindful of when I pulled my camera out to take pictures of anything.

* * *

The further away from the center of city I traveled, the worse things became, which was the exact opposite of what I anticipated. With police focusing their attention at their own stations and hospitals to maintain order (others skipped out to look out for their families) the outskirts of the town increasingly fell into disorder.

It started out light at first. At stores where all the employees already went home, someone might walk in and snatch something that was on the counter and keep walking. If a street was pretty empty and filled with abandoned cars, someone would poke through the cars and pocket anything of value. If a neighborhood got power back quickly, things would go back to normal, but those that didn't assumed the world was still ending, where things got bad.

I kept walking. Gas stations went dry fairly quickly, but not before those who owned the gas stations increased prices to exorbitant rates. The closer a gas station was to a blackout area, the quicker things went back. Ironically the opposite was true for grocery stores.

All grocery stores were mobbed pretty quick. In area's where power was working, people could still pay with credit cards, so thing remained relatively organized even though people were still incredibly anxious to say the least. In areas still without power though, only people who had cash could make any purchases. With ATM's down and banks locking people out pretty quickly, anyone lucky enough to have cash on them got all the good stuff. Everyone else had to standby and wait.

Thats when the looting started.

After crowds swelled up to a hundred or two hundred people outside, it only took a few pushy adults to muscle their way through, and then everyone else following. And then everything else fell apart.

* * *

10:44PM

(Turns on cell phone. 26 missed calls. All from Shin-Wae)

 **Me** : "Hua, how are you doing?"  
 **Ghenka** : "Terrible. The roads are all at a standstill with people trying to get inland or to loved ones, I'm not even halfway there. Also why the hell did you turn your phone off?"  
 **Me** : "I had to turn it off because my wife was making my life hell"  
 **Ghenka** : "She's been doing that since the day you married her... Are you at your hotel?"  
 **Me** : "Not quite, but I'm almost there. My ankles are the size of mangos right now"  
 **Ghenka** : "Well hurry. I'm listening to the radio and getting calls from my friends, all of them are saying its going to sh*t... Stores raided, people attacking each other for bread. It's all coming apart"  
 **Me** : "News reports like to exaggerate everything. I would know, I work for them"  
 **Ghenka** : "Hayou you don't understand. This will absolutely get as bad as possible"

I looked around at my surroundings to make sure I was safe. No one was around, and everything was relatively quiet. I took a seat on the sidewalk.

 **Me** : "What makes you so sure?"  
 **Ghenka** : "Sure about what?"  
 **Me** : "So sure that everything will get as bad as you think it will"  
 **Ghenka** : "Do you watch a lot of apocalypse movies? The ones where everyone has a family they're trying to protect?"  
 **Me** : "I don't watch movies, you know this"  
 **Ghenka** : "I forgot how boring you Are... You know how China's one child policy has completely screwed up the average family dynamic in a country of over a billion people?"  
 **Me** : "Yes... It's expected to cause huge problems for wages, healthcare, school systems, etc in the future"  
 **Ghenka** : "It also makes everyone that much more desperate"  
 **Me** : "I don't understand"

He sighed, then spelled it out for me.

 **Ghenka** : "In this scenario people aren't fighting just for their families, they're fighting for _entire generations_... Thanks to the one-child policy, there is basically only one person that an entire family can depend on to protect them and get food for them. If that person fails, the entire BLOODLINE could be extinguished"

He paused.

 **Ghenka** : "People aren't just fighting for their families or themselves Hayou, they're fighting for everyone before them, with them, and after them... They will fight like they have nothing to lose, because they have EVERYTHING to lose"

I didn't notice the person behind me until they pressed something hard and metallic against the back of my head.

"Drop the phone, pull out your wallet, and anything valuable in your bag"  
 **Ghenka** : "Hayou? Are you there? Hayou?"

I stood up slowly.

"Hang up the phone. Now"  
 **Ghenka** : "Hayou can hear me? Is there another attack going on?"

I hung up.

* * *

I turned around and faced the man robbing me. He had a 6 shooter revolver aimed at my head, and was very calm. Young guy slightly taller than me, very fit. Looked like he could be a steelworker, he certainly didn't need a gun to put me within an inch of death.

 **Him** : "I don't want to hurt you, and I'll make this pretty simple. Give me your phone, wallet, and things in your bag, and you get to walk away nice and easy"  
 **Me** : "You can have my wallet, thats fine. But I really need to keep my phone and my bag"  
He shook his head. "Wallet, phone, bag. All of it. Lets go"  
 **Me** : "How about my phone and wallet? They're the two most useful things I have. I'll give you both of them"

He thought about it. He could tell it was a sincere offer, but unfortunately, he wasn't the one in charge.

"The hell is taking so long?"

I looked to my left and out of a nearby alley came a gang of 4 people, one of them 6 foot 2 and looking like an olympic athlete.

 **Ringleader** : "Take all of his stuff or shoot him. Lets go"  
 **Other Guy** : "He's willing to give up his phone and wallet without a fight"  
 **Ringleader** : "And you were thinking of accepting that offer?... Can never get good help these days"

The ringleader made his way right over to us and socked me in the jaw. I turned away at the last moment, but he still got a pretty good hit on me, and I crumbled to the ground. He snatched the gun away from the other guy

 **Ringleader** : "If the guy is offering everything except one thing, then thing is the most valuable one of them all"

He snatched my bag off of me as I rolled around on the ground in agony and started ruffling through it.

 **Ringleader** : "Weh-heh-hell, what do we have here?... Looks like you've been holding out on us, old man"

The single change of clothes I brought with me he tossed to the ground, and pulled out a camera. It was neither of the Kwanon 1933 camera's I needed most for my mission. Instead it was the main Nikon camera supplied from the newspaper that I used for regular business. It was worth about $1,800 and its modern bulky look made it obvious to anyone that it could fetch a pretty penny

 **Ringleader** : "This here looks might expensive" he turned to me. "You trying to hide this from me?"

I finally managed to pull myself together from the punch to look at him. He was far bigger and more terrifying up close. From the angle I was at on the ground, he looked almost a head taller then any of his other accomplices and far more fearsome then them, even if they were armed.

 **Ringleader** : "This is why you don't make deals with those you steal from" he waved the camera around so that the rest of his gang could see it. "They'll keep the most valuable thing for themselves and try to get away by making us look stupid.

He tossed the camera behind him to one of his associates and then grabbed me by my shirt. Hoisting me up in the air clean off my feet

 **Ringleader** : "You trying to $#% me old man? Trying to hide what rightfully belongs to me?"  
 **Me** : "I'm sorry. I just- I just don't want to die in this country"  
 **Ringleader** : "Your Chinese is &%#*... What country are you from?"  
I lied. "Korean. I'm South Korean"  
 **Ringleader** : "Heh... I would have pegged you as a filthy little Jap"

He dropped me to the ground. I crumbled on my ankles that were already sore from walking so far and writhed around in pain.

 **Ringleader** : "Take his phone and his wallet. Take the bag as well, we could use it to store anything else we find... Leave his clothes"

One of the gang members snatched my phone and my wallet out of my pockets while the original guy with the gun stood over and watched. Another guy dumped the compartments of my bag out onto the street. The Kwanon camera's hit the ground and made a distinctly metallic sound, before one of my other articles of clothing landed on top of it.

None of the other gang members noticed as they walked away. None of them except for the ringleader.

 **Ringleader** : "Haiwa, what are you doing?"  
 **Gang Member** : "I took the bag like you said to"  
 **Ringleader** : "Do you know what came out of it?"  
 **Gang Member** : "Nothing but clothes"

The ringleader rolled his eyes and cursed under his breath. Yanking up one of my shirts off the ground, the two Kwanon camera's were revealed in the plastic bags, one just a collection of parts, the other in pristine condition"

 **Ringleader** : "More toys?" He picked up the camera in good condition and examined it. His face soured. "The %$# kind of camera is this?"

Still rolling around on the ground, I put on the best acting performance I could muster.

 **Me** : "It's my fathers camera... He had someone fix it up for him, and I was picking it up and returning it to him. Then the attack happened"  
 **Ringleader** : "Looks like an old $$ camera to me"  
 **Me** : "It's a piece of &^%$ to be honest with you. It's not even digital. It needs film like those cheap Kodak camera's people threw away 20 years ago. This one means a lot to him though"

He examined the other bag with parts in it.

 **Ringleader** : "And this?"  
 **Me** : "Another camera of the same type. Wanted to see if the guy could put it back together but he couldn't, so I brought it back"

He paused for a little bit.

 **Ringleader** : "Your father fight in the war?"  
I hesitated, not sure what he meant  
 **Ringleader** : "Did your dear old man fight in the war?"  
 **Me** : "Not WW2, but he fought in Korea"  
 **Ringleader** : "Interesting... So did my grandfather..." He paused again and examined the camera " _He died fighting against South Korea_ "

He then turned back towards me a second time and walked towards me. Picking me up by my shirt, he once again hoisted me up into the air

 **Ringleader** : "What do you think are the chances that your father was the man who killed my grandfather, hmm?... What are the odds that I could make up for his sacrifice right here, right now"  
 **Me** : "Impossible! It's not possible... Not possible at all..."  
 **Ringleader** : "And how can you be so sure?"  
 **Me** : "Because, he was a medic! He was just the guy who tries to help others, not kill"  
 **Ringleader** : "My father was in the infantry. He would always be on the front lines and face the most danger"

He dropped me once again, this time I managed to brace for it.

 **Ringleader**. "How coincidental. You see, my grandfather was strong and brave and stood on the front lines, and just like him I am strong and brave and lead other men... Your father stayed off the battlefield to try to help others because he was weak, and you are too weak to defend yourself"

He dropped the camera on the ground and put the full force of his heel into it, breaking it in half.

 **Ringleader** : "If your father was stronger and served on the front lines, then he would deserve to have his precious knick-knacks fixed for him. But cowards who stay off the battlefield like your father don't deserve the same honor as those who died fighting, like my grandfather"

With that, he took my cellphone, my wallet, and my main work camera and walked away. The rest of his gang members followed him, and they left me alone in the street behind them. After mustering what strength I could, I picked up my clothes strewn on the ground around me along with what was left of the two Kwanon cameras.

Deep inside me, in that same cavern that was illuminated by the flame of adventure and desire, the little flame that popped into existence and held its ground blew out. My dream was once again dashed, and I was in a far worse state now then if I had just played it safe.


	4. Chapter 4 of 12: Side Quest

It was shortly after midnight by the time I shuffled into the lobby of my hotel. The numbness in my ankles was masked only by the numbness in my own head, still trying to process how everything went so bad so quickly. Not only had I managed to have my phone and wallet stolen in the middle of a Kaiju attack, I also managed to lose the very camera's that were the only ones capable of photographing the Kaiju that by themselves were worth several thousand dollars.

I looked like an absolute mess as I walked in. I had my unfolded clothes in one hand, broken camera's in plastic bags in the other. I must have looked homeless, based on how the staff looked at me with caution and alarm in their faces.

 **Desk Girl** : "Can I... May I help you sir?"  
 **Me** : "I had a reservation for a room here earlier today"  
 **Desk Girl** : "You... Had a reservation here?"  
I nodded.  
 **Desk Girl** : "Your name sir?"  
 **Me** : "Hayou Mitiori"  
She typed in my name into her computer. Her eyes widened in surprise when the name actually showed up in the database.  
 **Desk Girl** : "You were expected to check in several hours ago"  
 **Me** : "I'm sorry for that, I was sort of caught up in that monster attack in the middle of the city"  
 **Desk Girl** : "Oh. Yes... Of course. How silly of me" She paused. "Do you have any identification with you?"  
I shook me head. "I was robbed on my way here"  
 **Desk Girl** : "Give me one moment please"

She walked to a backroom for a few seconds before returning with her manager, an older man who after taking one look at me immediately became as concerned and hesitant as all the other hotel workers who saw me come in. I didn't hear much of what they were muttering, but I picked up bits and pieces. The fact that I was a foreigner whose name was in the system and also was only planning on staying for one night helped my case, as well as the fact that I gave them my credit card information beforehand when I initially booked the hotel.

 **Manager** : "Your room is 18B, down the hallway to your left"  
 **Me** : "Thank you. Would it be okay if I borrowed a phone to make a call real quick? My cellphone got stolen with the rest of my things"  
 **Manager** : "Use this one" He handed me the hotel phone with the number pad. I brought it closer to me and dialed the number.

(Phone call with Hua Ghenka)

 **Ghenka** : "Hello?"  
 **Me** : "It's me"  
 **Ghenka** : "Where the %$#& have you been? I tried calling you for like hours and you never answered. I was getting worried"  
 **Me** : "I got robbed on my way to the hotel. You weren't kidding when you said to stay safe"  
 **Ghenka** : "Are you okay?"  
 **Me** : "Relatively speaking, yeah"  
 **Ghenka** : "Well I'm only 10 minutes away from the hotel if that helps"  
 **Me** : "We also have another issue"  
 **Ghenka** : "What?"  
 **Me** : "The 1933 Kwanon camera that was in pristine shape got smashed"  
 **Ghenka** : "... Shit..."  
 **Me** : "I'm so sorry Ghenka. I don't know what to tell you"  
 **Ghenka** : "How bad is it smashed?"

I looked at the camera in the bag to refresh myself

 **Me** : "Pretty bad... It certainly won't work in its current state"  
 **Ghenka** : "Why didn't you go to the poli-, oh wait..."  
 **Me** : "Yeah"  
 **Ghenka** : "Look I'm already almost here so don't bother staying there"  
 **Me** : "Hua, it's almost midnight and we've both had a long night. I couldn't possibly waste any more of your time"  
 **Ghenka** : "No look I have a little bachelor pad in Shanghai I sometimes use for meetings, we can crash there and sort this out"  
 **Me** : "Oh... Ok that actually works out then"  
 **Ghenka** : "I'm just getting off the ramp, I'll be there shortly"  
 **Me** : "Sounds good"

(Click)

* * *

I informed the front desk I wouldn't be staying there after all and asked to cancel my reservation, which they were more then happy to do. By the time I resolved that and walked outside, Hua pulled up into the entrance and got out of his car.

 **Ghenka** : "Geez. You look worse then I thought"  
 **Me** : "I can't look worse than those days when we were in basic together"

He smiled and we embraced. Hua and I both enlisted in the Japanese reserve forces fresh out of college which is when we first became friends. We became best friends as time went on, and while he dropped out of training as soon as he could while I stayed in it all the way, we never grew apart and always kept in touch with each other.

 **Ghenka** : "Did they steal your bag too?"  
 **Me** : "They took everything that wasn't of value, leaving me with my clothes and the camera parts"  
 **Ghenka** : "Here, throw your clothes in the backseat and hop in the front, we can get to my place pretty quick and be able to get some sleep"  
 **Me** : "I'll probably fall asleep in the car on the way there"  
 **Ghenka** : "You deserve some. Hop in"

I placed the mosh-pit of clothes in the backseat and hopped in the front of his car, holding the bags of camera pieces in my lap. His apartment place was only about 20 minutes away from the hotel closer towards the beach, but I managed to fall asleep after just 3 minutes. The gentle humming and vibrating of the engine lulled me into unconsciousness.

* * *

(9:44AM the next morning)

I didn't even remember making it to Hua's apartment late last night, nor do I remember walking in, placing all of my remaining stuff on a footrest, and then passing out onto the couch in the living room. Overnight my ankles managed to swell back down to their normal size, but they still ached from the stress I put them through all of yesterday. Ghenka had retired to the only bedroom in the house and had woken up only shortly before I had.

 **Ghenka** : "Oh you're awake"  
 **Me** : "Thank you again for everything Hua. Your apartment is very nice"  
 **Ghenka** : "Yeah its a little home away from home"

He sat down on an armchair next to me as he put on socks

 **Ghenka** : "The power is still out but the water isn't. If you don't mind freezing cold water you can wash yourself up if you want"  
 **Me** : "I haven't had to take a cold shower since our army days"  
 **Ghenka** : "It'll just be like old times"  
 **Me** : "Let me wash my hands and my face, that will do for now"  
 **Ghenka** : "Take your time. If you need some spare clothes you can borrow whatever you want from the closet, we are pretty much the same size I think"

I hadn't looked in a mirror since the whole ordeal unfolded, but I looked like a mess. I had soot on all of my clothes and hands, I had a few bruises all around my face, my eyes were still pretty bloodshot, and I'm sure the veins in my ankles made them look like a roadmap of downtown Tokyo. I washed myself up and looked in Ghenka's closet for a shirt, since the one I was wearing was the one that was on me when I was trapped in the tunnels as they flooded. I grabbed one that was dark grey with some stripes on it. It was a little loose around the waist and sleeves, but it did the trick.

I walked back out and slumped in the couch next to Hua, who was relaxing in the armchair himself.

 **Me** : "So what happens now?"  
 **Ghenka** : "I don't know to be honest"  
 **Me** : "How long do you think we could stay holed up here? I don't think we should go anywhere unless we absolutely have to"  
 **Ghenka** : "I only have some snacks and beer here. We could last here for a few hours until the power kicks back in, assuming it does"  
 **Me** : "Snacks and beer sounds like a good breakfast to me"

Ghenka laughed and got up, making his way into the small kitchen nearby. His apartment wasn't so much an apartment in the traditional sense. Instead all of the rooms blended together in an open concept, with only the bedroom and the bathroom tucked away behind the walls. The place looked like the type of apartment a couple of university students would live out of and commute to campus nearby, making it a nice little meeting place for any associates Hua wanted to do business with in a more relaxed setting. He returned with some salty foods, beers, and water in glasses, arranging them into a nice little spread that we then helped ourselves to

 **Me** : "Did you hear anything else on your car radio last night on the way here?"  
 **Ghenka** : "Not anything new. The death count in Shanghai was up to 44,000 before transmissions were suspended"  
 **Me** : "It'll probably go even higher as time goes on. I hope that monster doesn't attack any place else"  
 **Ghenka** : "Tell me about the monster... What was it like? Did you even see it?"

Over the next hour or so I described everything that happened over the past 24 hours to Ghenka, who listened both in horror and awe. I described the monster, how it emerged from the river, how it leveled iconic skyscrapers in seconds, and how it flooded the tunnels that almost drowned me. I also described what happened after the monster left, and Ghenka still paid close attention.

 **Me** : "Then I made it to the hotel the same time you did"  
 **Ghenka** : "Wow man... Wow... It's a shame what happened to the camera's but at least you freaking survived it all"  
 **Me** : "You don't know the half of it"  
 **Ghenka** : "What do you mean?"  
 **Me** : "You know how the monster causes everything to blackout before it arrives?"  
 **Ghenka** : "I think you mentioned that, yeah"  
 **Me** : "Everything electrical malfunctions" I pointed to the cameras "But the Kwanon camera's though aren't digital or electrical, they're analog... Theoretically speaking, they could have taken a picture of the monster if they had film in them"  
 **Ghenka** : "Are you %$#&ing kidding me?"  
I shook my head: "I actually was thinking of chasing after the monster so that I could try to photograph it using the camera's, but then they got smashed"

Ghenka immediately turned his gaze to the camera bags and snatched one. His eyes darted all over it as he studied it intently, the gears in his minds kicking into high gear.

 **Ghenka** : "What if we can fix them?"  
 **Me** : "Tch, how are we going to fix them? We don't know anything about them, and anyone who does could be dead or fleeing the country right now"  
 **Ghenka** : "I know a guy who might be able to help us. He's a genius who knows about all kinds of machines that he can repair, and do it in a way that preserves the value of the machines themselves. He could make BOTH of these camera's as good as new if we can get to him"  
 **Me** : "Where does he live?"  
 **Ghenka** : "...(Long Pause)... He lives in Taipei"

I slumped back into the couch in defeat

 **Me** : "How the heck would we ever be able to get to Taiwan? It would take us almost 3 hours to get there BY PLANE. South Korea is closer to us than Taiwan is"  
 **Ghenka** : "I know a guy who has a plane. He can get us there"  
 **Me** : "Who would be crazy enough to let you have a plane under these circumstances? If I had a plane, I would have put all my friends and family on it and flown it halfway to Russia by now. There's no way he'd let someone else use it"  
 **Ghenka** : "You don't know how rich and irrational my clients can be. Watch this"

Hua pulled out his cellphone and set it on the table. He dialed a number and put it on speakerphone.

 **Guy** : "Hello?"  
 **Ghenka** : "Sheiho, its Hua. You have a second?"  
 **Guy** : "Hua?... Why on earth are you calling me now of all times?"  
 **Ghenka** : "I need to ask a favor from you. I need your plane"  
 **Guy** : "PHA! You're out of your mind. Why would I let you borrow my plane? I'm trying to get the hell out of China myself right now, so should you"  
 **Ghenka** : "I have a proposition to make for you where all I need in return is to borrow your plane for a day. Two days tops"  
 **Guy** : "Like I said, you're out of your mind"  
 **Ghenka** : "You know that thing you wanted to really badly?"  
 **Guy** : "... Yeah"  
 **Ghenka** : "It's in Taiwan in a little lockbox I keep in a post-office. If you let me borrow your plane, I will fly out, get it, and bring it to you in Hong Kong... And It'll be yours for half price"  
 **Guy** : "... Bull%&$#"  
 **Ghenka** : "Sheiho you know I would never tell a lie about something like this, even in a situation like this"

He paused for a long time, considering the offer.

 **Ghenka** : "Your plane is still parked in a hanger outside Jinshan right?"  
 **Guy** : "Yes"  
 **Ghenka** : "We're maybe 25 minutes away from it in Shanghai. You let us borrow it, we will fly to Taiwan, pick it up, and bring it to you. I'll even make it 60% off for you rather then half, just because you're such a great guy"  
 **Guy** : "We? Who is 'we'?"  
 **Ghenka** : "Oh, I'm bringing a very close friend of mine with me. He is here to help"  
 **Me** : "Hello"  
 **Ghenka** : "Look I know you wanted this for a very long time and were devastated that you didn't get it, but the original buyer was never able to claim it. If you let me borrow your plane for like 2 days, I will bring it to you for yours to keep. No strings attached"

There was another pause

 **Guy** : "Who is going to fly it?"  
 **Ghenka** : "My friend here is a pilot"

I glared at Ghenka in shock, who winked at me

 **Guy** : "Your friend is going to fly my plane?"  
 **Ghenka** : "And we will return it to you WITH the prize to you in Hong Kong. Easy peasy... We have a deal?"  
 **Me** : "Hua wait a s-" He put his hand on my shoulder to keep me quiet.  
 **Guy** : "Alright fine. You have 2 days"  
 **Ghenka** : "Sheiho thank you so much. You are a terrific person and you will not be disappointed"

He hung up.

Ghenka turned to me and beamed. "See? Easy as that"  
 **Me** : "Hua I cant fly a plane!"  
 **Ghenka** : "I know that, I'll fly it"  
 **Me** : "...You can fly a plane?"  
 **Ghenka** : "I'm not certified, but I have my instrument reading. It'll be a piece of cake"  
 **Me** : "Why not just tell him that yourself?"  
 **Ghenka** : "Oh he would never trust me to fly his plane. But he would trust you"  
 **Me** : "Why would he trust me? He doesn't even know me!"  
 **Ghenka** : "He doesn't know you, but he knows me, and he trusts me... He trusts me, I trust you, therefore he trusts you"  
 **Me** : "Enough to fly his own plane?"  
 **Ghenka** : "My clients are not always the most rational people"

I paused as I tried to wrap my head around what just happened.

 **Me** : "Do you know where his plane is?"  
 **Ghenka** : "I know exactly where he keeps it, he's taken me on it before"  
 **Me** : "So we drive 30 minutes to Jinshan, you fly the plane to Taiwan, we pick up the thing and meet with the guy who could fix the cameras, then fly to Hong Kong to drop off the thing-"  
 **Ghenka** : "And then we have your camera back"  
 **Me** : "All to go chasing after this monster with it?"  
 **Ghenka** : "Exciting isn't it?"  
 **Me** : "I'm not sure we should"  
 **Ghenka** : "Weren't you the one who wanted to try doing this all by yourself?"  
 **Me** : "Yes, but then I immediately ran into trouble and almost got killed because of it. I don't want the same thing to happen to both of us"  
 **Ghenka** : "It won't, we've got each other, and we are one hell of a team"

Ghenka beamed. I don't know why he was suddenly interested in throwing his life on the line to chase after a giant monster, he had much more to lose in life than I ever did. However, he breathed new life into the quest I thought was fruitless, and I certainly stood a much better chance at staying alive with Hua by my side.

 **Me** : "Lets grab all the snacks and beer we can and head to the car"  
 **Ghenka** : "I knew you were my best friend! You grab the snacks, I'll refill some of the bottles with tap water"

We both got up and sprung into action. I made a few trips out to the car with snacks while Hua took care of a few other things. Once we got all situated, he locked the place up and headed to the drivers seat

 **Me** : "Hey Hua, quick question"  
 **Ghenka** : "What?"  
 **Me** : "What was the item that this guy let you borrow his plane for?"  
 **Ghenka** : "Oh... It's a pen"

He got into the car as if what he said was somehow a perfectly acceptable answer.

 **Me** : "He let you borrow his plane for 2 days to be flown by someone he doesn't know, BECAUSE HE WANTS A _PEN_?"  
 **Ghenka** : "Yes, now come on and get in the damn car! We're burning daylight!"

* * *

The drive from Ghenka's meeting house in Shihudangzhen to the private airport in Jinshan was for the most part uneventful. Cell phones were able to get a little reception in the region, and we used online maps to take backroads and industrial roadways to get to the outskirts of the coastal city. Those routes were safer than using the main highways through residential and commercial areas, because the more populated areas grew increasingly crime-ridden and dangerous to pass through, while industrial areas remained relatively quiet.

The most alarming part of the trip was listening to radio broadcasts.

" _Based on a number of different reports, the city of Busan, South Korea, a city home to approximately 3.5 million people, is suffering from sudden widespread blackouts that began early this morning. All attempts to make contact within the city have failed. Many have noted that these developments are considerably similar to the conditions that struck Shanghai prior to the attack by a giant monster based on eye witness reports. Nothing is being able to be confirmed yet, but all listeners to these broadcasts are being encouraged to remain calm"_

It didn't take long for either me or Hua to realize what likely was going on, or that Busan South Korea is not even 100 miles from the Japanese mainland.

The airport at Jinshan was not an international airport or a regional hub, instead it was a small scale airfield used for regional deliveries that offered a few flights for tourists. Security at the airfield was light, since the largest planes there were twin engine Lear Jets, so we parked the car and made our way over to the lone guard gate, who then escorted us to the correct hanger and opened the doors. In only 2 trips we managed to get all the snacks and supplies from the car into the cabin of the airplane. Ghenka took his seat in the cockpit while I situated myself in the cabin.

It was a private plane with maybe 8 seats in it total. It was by no means the most lavish personal plane in the world, let alone central china, but to a 59 year old photographer who had done almost nothing in his life, it was a whole different experience. _Arm rests that weren't the width of an iPhone? Seats that reclined more than 3 and a half inches? Foot space?_ The upper class had it all.

 **Ghenka** : "Hey do you mind if I just yell stuff back to you when I hear anything rather than use the intercom?"  
 **Me** : "You're the pilot, your choice"  
 **Ghenka** : "Awesome. I'm just going through some pre-flight checkups and then we'll be good to go"  
 **Me** : "How long will that take?"  
 **Ghenka** : "Another 10 minutes tops"

My eyes wandered around the cabin out of curiosity and boredom. Two chairs located closest to the cockpit had tiny tv screens built into the walls, while the back of the plane had a door leading to a tiny bathroom and miscellaneous storage space. Two of the chairs towards the back of the plane were also on swivels and could spin around slightly, and the windows to the plane had their own little curtains around them as well rather then just a slider thing you push up and down. After 10 minutes passed, Ghenka was given the all clear and he started up the engines. He pulled the plane out of the hanger, said some stuff to air traffic control that I didn't understand, and before I knew it we were in the air.

Ghenka was below average at flying. He said he had an instrument reading, but every few minutes the plane would lurch to the right or left or begin to roll towards a certain side before it was straightened out. He said something was wrong with the autopilot which is why there were issues, as well as wind, but reassured me not to worry about anything.

My stomach did not find his reassurance particularly helpful.

We were over the sea after just a few minutes on the way to Taiwan. I almost had managed to fall asleep in what would be the nicest airplane seat I ever got to sit in when the trouble started.

 **Ghenka** : "Hey Hayou, we have a problem"  
 **Me** : "What is it?"  
 **Ghenka** : "Come up here and take a seat in the co-pilot chair"

I got up and took the vacant chair next to Hua, surrounded by buttons, switches, and instruments that I had no idea how to use.

 **Me** : "What's wrong?"  
 **Ghenka** : "Word just came in from ATC, all planes are to to be grounded immediately at the closest airport"  
 **Me** : "Why?"  
 **Ghenka** : "Apparently the government is closing down borders and implementing no-fly zones across the country"  
 **Me** : "%$#& ... How close are we to Taiwan?"  
 **Ghenka** : "We are about two hours away at worst. The airport we just took off from is not even 15 minutes away"  
 **Me** : "Is there a way we can still get to Taiwan?"  
 **Ghenka** : "I can make an excuse to ATC that our Autopilot cannot be disengaged and that overrides are failing. We can then continue in a straight line before miraculously regaining control, and then landing at the nearest airport which will be in Taiwan"  
 **Me** : "Ok, so then it works out"  
 **Ghenka** : "Well, not exactly"  
 **Me** : "What's the issue?"

Hua paused and turned to me, giving me his full attention.

 **Ghenka** : "If we land in Taiwan, the no-fly rule will stay in effect after we land, meaning we won't be able to take off after we fix the camera's and pick up the pen for our friend"  
 **Me** : "... So then we have to choose between getting stuck in Taiwan and staying on the mainland"  
 **Ghenka** : "Basically yeah. That's why I called you up here... We need to make a decision about this and decide what to do"

We both fell quiet as we thought things out. If we went to Taiwan, we'd have almost no way to get off the island, a similar fate also shared by more then 23 million people who also live there. There's also no guarantee that we will be able to get the camera's repaired by Hua's friend upon landing, assuming we don't get imprisoned by Taiwan officials upon landing... On the other hand if we made our way back to mainland China, we would have to retreat back to the tiny apartment we spent the night in, with almost no supplies and maybe not even with power.

 **Me** : "I'm stumped. What do you think we should do?"  
 **Ghenka** : "Here's what I'm thinking. If we are prioritizing survival, we are pretty screwed either way. All the places around us are heavily populated and descending into anarchy, while the areas I think are safe would only buy us a few days security at best"  
 **Me** : "Sounds about right"  
 **Ghenka** : "Since our choices for best odds to survive are equally crappy, the next thing would be to prioritize fixing the cameras, in which case getting to Taiwan becomes the obvious choice. I don't know anyone else in all of China who could fix the camera's the way we need them to be fixed and as quickly as we need them to be fixed, so going to Taiwan gives us far better odds of getting them repaired then going back to China"  
 **Me** : "Assuming that your guy can fix them"  
 **Ghenka** : "Right... Lastly, the camera's might be our only ticket to getting assistance from others should we need it. Being a Chinese and Japanese citizen stuck in Taiwan doesn't help out either one of us, but having what could be the only tool that could record the monster might get us out of a sticky situation, or get us something we really need"  
 **Me** : "Whereas if we head back to China, all we have are the pieces of cameras that still need to be repaired by someone skilled enough to repair them"  
 **Ghenka** : "And we become as unimportant as the billion other people in the country, exactly"

We both fell quiet again, though not for as long as before

 **Me** : "Seeing how our options are both pretty %$#&, I think we stick with going to Taiwan and hoping for the best there once we land"  
Ghenka nodded. "Sounds good"

He motioned for me to head back to the cabin while he put his headset back on. "ATC this is Jinshan flight A041, we are experiencing technical difficulties with our autopilot and are unable to change course, be advised"

* * *

We continued out over the Pacific Ocean for another hour as planned, going in a straight line to stay in concordance with our lie that the auto-pilot was stuck in engaged. The entire time, Hua skillfully managed to give air traffic controllers the run around by attempting to override the autopilot before inevitable failing. We were transferred from Shanghai air control to Zhejiang air control before eventually hitting the jurisdiction of Taiwan air control, when we miraculously managed to fix the problem and made our way towards the Taoyuan International Airport, located along the northern shores of the island just west of Taipei.

We landed on one of the smaller runways rather then the main ones used for heavy duty commercial traffic. The landing was rough, as Hua warned it would, but we touched down on the pavement and then were directed towards a hanger.

After the plane came to a stop Hua leaned out of the cockpit towards me.

 **Ghenka** : "Alright, so... I'll talk our way out of any trouble we might have with ATC. Before we go though we need to be aware of where they are going to move the plane for 'inspection', in case we need to try to bust our way out of here"  
 **Me** : "What do you mean 'bust our way out'?"  
 **Ghenka** : "Well we may be stuck here thanks to the no-fly rules but that doesn't mean we aren't going to try to leave anyways..."  
 **Me** : "We never discussed that!"  
 **Ghenka** : "What were you planning then? We come here, get the camera's fixed, then hope the monster eventually comes this way and survive in the mean time?"  
 **Me** : "We only discussed where to go and we decided here would be best, we still need to decide what our next plan would be after getting the cameras fixed"  
 **Ghenka** : "How does 'steal back the plane and get out of here' not be the most obvious option for that?"  
 **Me** : "It depends on the circumstances!"  
 **Ghenka** : "Alright, alright. Fine. We'll get the cameras fixed and then figure out what to do after that. Either way, it wouldn't hurt knowing where they move the plane should we start running out of options"  
I relented. "Ok that's fine with me"

He turned back into the cockpit and went through more tasks for his checklist. In the meantime I organized our stuff we brought on the plane so that we could exit as orderly as we could. It was during this task that I noticed a huge problem outside.

 **Me** : "Hua?"  
 **Ghenka** : "Yeah?"  
 **Me** : "How many people would they normally send out to receive us if we had an emergency situation and didn't break the law?"  
 **Ghenka** : "I... It's hard to say, maybe a few people? Why?"  
 **Me** : "Because I don't think they would send this many people for us if we weren't in really big trouble"

Outside the plane in the hanger, no less than 9 police cars pulled in through the entrance before cops poured out and took up defensive positions behind the cars. Shotguns, rifles, and pistols of all shapes and sizes pointed at the plane.


	5. Chapter 5 of 12: From Bad to Worse

The officers hauled the two of us off the plane and put us into different rooms in a building complex near the hangers. The room they put me in was empty except for a small table in the middle, and 2 chairs opposite each other. They sat me down in one of them and handcuffed me to it before leaving the room. It took them a while before the officers who detained me finally came back in, and when they did there were 3 of them. One of the officers sat down in the chair across from me, while the others took up positions around the room.

 **Officer** : "Name?"  
 **Me** : "Hayou Mitiori"  
 **Officer** : "What is your friends name?"  
 **Me** : "Hua Ghenka"  
 **Officer** : "Why did you come here to Taiwan?"

I tried to relax and answer the questions as best as I could. Hua promised he would answer any questions, but by splitting us up I could no longer rely on him to do all the talking for me. All I could do now was stay relaxed, and try to not get into deeper trouble then I already was.

 **Me** : "There was some sort of issue with the autopilot that kept us going straight, and we finally fixed it after about an hour and a half. We turned to here and landed as soon-"  
 **Officer** : "Shanghai ATC indicated Taiwan was your destination from the beginning. Why did you come to Taiwan?"  
 **Me** : "Oh, we were picking up something for a friend to deliver to him in Hong Kong"  
 **Officer** : "What's the name of your friend?"

 _Oh %$# &_

 **Me** : "... I don't remember..."  
 **Officer** : "... You don't remember the name of the person you flew to Taiwan for?"  
 **Me** : "My other friend knows him, Hua Ghenka. He could tell you everything you wan-"  
 **Officer** : "I'm not asking him, I'm asking you"

He paused.

 **Officer** : "Who does the plane belong to?"  
 **Me** : "The friend of Hua. The guy we're delivering something to. It's his plane"  
 **Officer** : "What was it you were picking up for this friend whose name you cannot remember?"

 _Double %$# &_

 **Me** : "According to Hua, it's some sort of pen..."  
 **Officer** : "... A pen..."  
 **Me** : "Yes"  
 **Officer** : "... I'm sorry, let me try to understand this... Your friend, who you don't know, let you borrow his plane to fly all the way to Taiwan, to pick up a pen for him?"  
 **Me** : "... Yes"

The other officers rolled their eyes and snickered, the officer interrogating me seemed annoyed.

 **Officer** : "Why don't you just tell me what it is you're really doing here"  
 **Me** : "I told you, we're picking up a pen for my friends friend"  
 **Officer** : "Do you seriously expect me to believe that?"  
 **Me** : "To be honest, if I were you I wouldn't believe it at first either, but it's the truth"

The officer paused, still not amused.

 **Officer** : "You want to know what I think?... I think that you STOLE the plane... I think you stole the plane, because you and your friend wanted to get out of China as fast as you could, and then landed in Taiwan because you're meeting someone else here to take with you"  
 **Me** : "We had permission from the guy to use his plane. You can ask him yourself"  
 **Officer** : "By talking to your other friend?"  
 **Me** : "Yes"

A tense silence broke out in the room. The officers were all not happy with what I was telling them, and I doubt anything that Hua would say to them would pacify them either. It did look bad that two guys flying a plane they do not own would mysteriously show up in Taiwan days after kaiju attacks started taking Shanghai, and the 'getting a pen' excuse was getting old really fast.

 **Officer** : "How did you steal the plane?"  
 **Me** : "We didn't steal it"  
 **Officer** : "How did you know where to find it?"  
 **Me** : "Hua knew where the plane was kept and knows the guy it belongs to. He asked the guy for the plane, he said yes"  
 **Officer** : "In exchange for getting him a pen"  
 **Me** : "It doesn't make sense to me either"  
 **Officer** : "I've heard enough... Bring it in."

One of the officers exited the room only to return momentarily afterwards with a clipboard. He handed the clipboard to the officer interrogating me who began to read off of it

 **Officer** : "No cargo in the cargo hold, no drugs or weapons or illegal paraphernalia on the plane, no other passengers on the plane apart from your friend, only a few snacks, open and sealed bottles of beer, and some clothes shoved into a compartment" He put the clipboard down and looked at me. "You aren't smugglers of any kind and don't have any criminal records, yet it seems like you guys were in an awful hurry to get out of China"

 **Me** : "We didn't have anything else to bring with us. I lost all my stuff in the Shanghai attack, Hua lives further south in Fuzhou. The plane was his idea as well, not mine"  
 **Officer** : "Why did he drive up to meet you?"  
 **Me** : "I was bringing something to him"  
 **Officer** : "What?"  
 **Me** : "I was going to give him some old cameras to sell"  
 **Officer** : "Where are they?"  
 **Me** : "They're smashed to pieces in plastic bags that we brought on the plane... It might be on that checklist of yours"

The officer looked back down on the checklist and went through the items again. His brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed as he read 'Bags of electronic parts', which referred to the camera's I mentioned.

 **Officer** : "If the camera's were smashed, why bring them to your friend to sell? Better yet, why bring them on the plane with you?"  
 **Me** : "We were hoping to get them repaired while in Taiwan"  
 **Officer** : "You said you were here to pick something up for a friend"  
 **Me** : "We are also doing that as well"  
 **Officer** : "So then you flew to Taiwan to pick up a pen for a friend who let you borrow his plane just for the pen, and also to repair some old cameras that you were bringing to your other friend"  
 **Me** : "Thats the gist of it, yes"

The officer looked back at the clipboard and tried to make sense out of everything, he was clearly not happy about what we did, but also didn't seem to think we were criminals. Assuming that Hua could contact his friend, we had an alibi for the plane, we had reasons for coming to Taiwan, and we had reasons for doing so as quickly as possible given the attacks in Shanghai. If Hua was already interrogated by the officers and told them about the pen, then the excuse would suddenly seem like a valid one. The odds of two suspects fabricating such a stupid excuse to explain their actions, when it would be far easier to make up something that was more plausible, was incredibly slim if it turned out we actually were doing something illegal or suspicious.

At the same time though, we were losing precious time being stuck here. Every moment we spent detained at the airport was another moment that we lost being able to repair the cameras, and another moment that could bring us closer to another Godzilla attack. I decided to go out on a limb.

 **Me** : "Can I speak to you in private?"  
 **Officer** : "We are in private"  
 **Me** : "I mean just you, without the others"  
 **Officer** : "Why can you not tell me in front of the other officers?"  
 **Me** : "...Please?"

He looked at me in suspicion, analyzing my face to deduct some sort of clue for my sudden request. Giving only a blank stare, the officer motioned with his head for the other officers to leave the room, wondering what it was I had to say. He was probably expecting some sort of confession or something that I would say to save my own skin and throw Hua under the bus.

 **Officer** : "Ok, what do you want to say?"  
 **Me** : "You know what happened in Shanghai? About what attacked?"  
 **Officer** : "I've heard rumors"  
 **Me** : "It was a giant monster. A monster that knocks out all electricity in like a mile and can knock down entire buildings"  
 **Officer** : "That's what I've heard"  
 **Me** : "I was there in Shanghai when it came out of the river, when it destroyed all those towers and killed all those people"  
 **Officer** : "..."  
 **Me** : "I'll cut to the chase. You know those cameras in the plastic bags that are busted?"  
 **Officer** : "What about them?"  
 **Me** : "Those are 1933 Kwanon cameras... They are very old cameras that rely on old analog parts to take pictures, rather than electrical parts that digital and modern cameras use"

The officer didn't seem interested

 **Officer** : "So?"  
 **Me** : "Me and my friend think that if we can get the camera fixed, we could use it to get pictures of the monster. The monster disrupts electricity, but the cameras don't use electricity to take pictures. Know what I mean?"

His squinted eyes filled with suspicion suddenly opened a little as he realized what I was getting at, and began to understand some of the ramifications of the situation he was now involved in.

 **Officer** : "So you think if you get the cameras fixed, you could take pictures of the giant monster that is attacking cities, and find out some way to defeat it?"  
 **Me** : "I wouldn't go THAT far, but I think we would be able to photograph the monster, which might help one way or another"

I decided to leave out the part that the real reason I wanted to photograph the monster was part of some wild desire to go on a crazy goose chase of epic proportions.

 **Officer** : "Who is the person here in Taiwan who might be able to fix them?"  
 **Me** : "I don't know the guy's name, only Hua does"

The officer leaned back in his chair and turned towards the door, evaluating everything I was telling him.

 **Me** : "I know you're just trying to do your job and everything, but if you could please talk to Hua he'll confirm everything I've told you. We need to get out of here and fix the cameras as soon as we can, before something happens to the man who can fix them, or something worse"

The officer sat in silence, pondering everything that I told him. He sat there for several seconds that seemed like minutes, before finally coming to a decision.

 **Officer** : "Wait here"

He got up and left the room without looking back at me. I didn't know where he was going, but I sure hoped he was talking to Hua in whatever room he was in.

* * *

About 20 minutes had passed before the officer returned, alone. He casually walked over behind me and unhooked my handcuffs.

 **Officer** : "Since you don't have anything illegal on the airplane nor committed any sort of criminal act yourself, we have no legal justification to keep you detained here. For now"  
 **Me** : "Thank you. Thank you! Oh thank you so much"  
 **Officer** : "Your friend though does not have his license and flew a plane he does not own into an international airport in spite of that"  
 **Me** : "Oh... But, but wait! I need him!... He's the one who knows this other person and where to find him! To fix the cameras!"  
 **Officer** : "I'm aware of that. I'm required to keep him here until further notice, but I do not have to prevent you from being able to meet with him and get any information you need to carry on with your mission"

 **Me** : "... What?"  
 **Officer** : "Follow me"

I got up from the chair and massaged my wrists. I followed the officer out the door and down a dimly lit hallway to another room, where he led me inside. Several other officers were in the room, and while Hua was not handcuffed behind his back, he was still had one arm cuffed to the table with a cellphone in the other hand

 **Ghenka** : "He bring you up to speed?"  
 **Me** : "Hua I'm sorry but I had to tell him everything. About the cameras, about the p-"  
 **Ghenka** : "No, don't worry, it actually helped us out that you're the one who said it and not me"  
 **Me** : "How come?"  
 **Officer** : "Guys let's make this quick"  
 **Ghenka** : "Right, sorry sir"  
 **Me** : "Hua, what's going on?"  
 **Ghenka** : "I made some calls. The guy who is going to fix the cameras knows you're on your way, and he thinks he'll be able to fix them"  
 **Me** : "I don't know where-"  
 **Ghenka** : "His shop is located at the corner of the 64 Expressway and Sanmin Road. It's right next to a Hot Pot restaurant. Go around the backdoor and tell him I sent you, he'll let you in"  
 **Me** : "Ok, got it"

 **Ghenka** : "There's also one more thing you need to do"  
 **Me** : "What?"  
 **Ghenka** : "Get the pen"  
 **Me** : "Oh. Oh right! The pen"  
 **Ghenka** : "The pen is in a little lockbox at the Hanzhong Post Office. If you go from Sanmin Road to Xiyuan Road and follow it Northeast, it will bring you right to it"  
 **Me** : "Ok, so 64 Expressway to Sanmin Road. Sanmin Road to the Xiyan Road. Hanzhong Post Office"  
 **Ghenka** : "That's right. The post box will be under my name, and the code to unlock the box is 5-1-4-6"  
 **Me** : "Ok. 64 Expressway, Sanmin Road. Xiyuan Road, 5146"  
 **Officer** : "I went ahead and wrote it down for you here" The officer handed me a small slip of paper with all the info on it. "We can let you leave with the bags with the cameras because we decided they are 'not of interest' to us, but we do need to keep the food and clothing from the plane so that we have some sort of 'evidence' to hold on to"  
 **Ghenka** : "You can also borrow my credit card and some cash in case you need it. Come back here once you've got everything as soon as you can, ok?"  
 **Officer** : "Due to police protocol, the release of your friend from our custody is contingent on you coming back with the proof that your story is true, namely having the cameras and the pen"

Time seemed to slow down as I fretted over everything that could go wrong. _What will happen if I get lost? What if the guy isn't there when I meet him? What if I get robbed again? What if something really bad happens?_ I felt confident in this whole mission entirely because I was going to have Hua by my side, but now I once again will be on my own with just my wits and my luck, neither of which have been reliable in the past.

 **Ghenka** : "Hua..."  
I turned to him, and he could see I was nervous.  
 **Ghenka** : "... You got this"

* * *

3:08PM

After being released from the airport, I managed to wave down a taxi and got in. There was a train station that took people from the airport straight to the heart of Taipei, which would put me almost right next to the post office, but fixing the cameras were the first priority. The drive to the repair shop lasted about 40 minutes, and the scenes outside stood in stark contrast to the ones I saw in Shanghai.

Unbeknownst to me or Hua, the city of Taiwan imposed martial law after mainland China grounded all flights, so military personnel and armored vehicles were everywhere. The casual looting and abandoned cars all over the streets were non-existent as people maintained their regular lives, just with a heightened sense of anxiety and more soldiers patrolling the streets with automatic weapons. Police officers also were brandishing weapons as they patrolled areas out of soldiers' line of sight. Along major intersections there was an occasional tank, and periodically some fighter jets and attack helicopters would fly overhead.

Some nations possess a military, but in Taiwan it looked more like a military possessed a state.

We arrived at the intersection of Expressway 64 and Sanmin road. Sure enough, right next to a Hot Pot restaurant, was a little repair shop the size of a fast food shop. There was no marquee sign on the front of the store letting people know what the place was, and to a quick passerby the place may have looked abandoned or approaching bankruptcy. However, the place was right at the location that Hua sent me to, so I got out of the cab and made my way around back.

 **Me** : "I don't know how long I will be, but if I'm not back in 10 min feel free to leave"  
 **Driver** : "I keep meter running for every minute!"  
 **Me** : "That's fine"

 _Cab drivers these days_

The constant hum of passing cars on the nearby freeway was all I heard as I walked around the back. There were no windows on the side of the building, and there was no pathway either, only unkempt grass that in some places reached up to your ankles. At the back of the facility was a single door that was almost a foot off the ground with no ramp or stair leading up to it. I knocked once. Then twice. Thats all it took, and the door creaked open.

 **Him** : "You must be Harou?"  
 **Me** : "Hayou... Hua sent me"  
 **Him** : "Nice to meet you, I'm Shun Kim. Come on in"

Shun Kim was younger than I anticipated for being a friend of Hayou, who like me was quickly approaching 60. Shun was in his early 30's but could easily pass as 28, black hair pushed forward over his forehead, and looked rather pale. He also wore pretty thick glasses and his clothes were wrinkly and unkempt. Stepping inside his shop which was surprisingly well lit, there was an assortment of different mechanisms, gizmos, electronics, and spare parts scattered everywhere. Tables overflowed with items, shelves on the walls were stacked to the ceiling, and in some places you could not see the floor because so many different things were scattered all around. The place was a clean-freak's worst nightmare, and an OCD person's personal hell.

Shun closed the door behind me and locked it.

 **Shun** : "You plan on staying here until I finish or do you have places to be?"  
 **Me** : "That depends on how long it'll take for you to fix them"  
 **Shun** : "Lets see them"

I handed him the two bags with camera parts in it and he studied them over. He opened up the bag of the one that was recently damaged and examined some of the parts, making an assortment of faces and grunts as he did.

 **Shun** : "Geez, this one looks like it got run over by a truck"  
 **Me** : "The guy was about the size of a truck, trust me"  
 **Shun** : "Hmmpf. This one would take me a couple of days to fix if you want it in prime condition, but if you just need it to work, I could get it done in maybe 3 hours"  
 **Me** : "Three HOURS?"  
 **Shun** : "You complaining about how long 3 hours is to repair this mess?"  
 **Me** : "No, 3 hours is amazing! Do whatever you need to do"  
 **Shun** : "Stay if you want, just don't touch any of my stuff"  
 **Me** : "There's actually something else I need to handle anyways"  
 **Shun** : "Ok good, I prefer not having people in here anyways"

 _Nice guy_

I unlocked the door and stepped outside, the door slammed shut behind me and clicked a number of times. As I walked to the front of the building, I felt immediately anxious about not having the cameras with me in the bags. Leaving them with a complete stranger like Shun who seemed a little off also didn't reassure me, but I didn't have much other choice at this point. I got back into the taxi and told the driver the address of the post office. I still could not for the life of me figure out why this pen, or any pen for that matter, would be valuable enough to let a stranger borrow a plane to go get it for them, especially after the emergence of Godzilla. But if things went as well as I need them to, none of it would matter by the end of tomorrow.

* * *

The drive to the post office took longer than expected because of heavy traffic congestion, but my driver was all too happy to run up the meter in the mean time. After growing tired of the music on the radio station, he scrolled over to the news channels, which was not for the faint of heart.

 _"Reports and early photos coming in from Busan South Korea have confirmed a large scale attack on the city resulting in the collapse of many skyscrapers. Local residents and sources within the city have claimed that the attack was carried out by some sort of large monster approximately 300 to 400 feet tall that could breathe fire. We do not have an estimate on the number of casualties or injuries._ _These events are strikingly similar to what reportedly took place in Shanghai just a day earlier, where a monster of similar proportions reportedly attacked the city and leveled several skyscrapers. The death tool in that attack has been estimated to be around 56,800, we do not yet know how many dies in Busan"_

 _"Several countries in the western Pacific have declared marshal law and grounded all air traffic, with tensions very high throughout the region. Reports of mass panic have come in from the following cities. Manilla, Seoul, Tokyo, Kyoto, Hanoi, Beijing, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Hong Kong, New Delhi, Pyongyang. The following countries have not declared marshal law but have grounded all incoming and outgoing air traffic. New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand"_

 _"Many things about the monster still remain unknown, with no official consensus about why the monster attacks heavily populated areas, or where it came from. Some scientists are postulating that a creature of the described size and abilities would not even be possible to exist, and the lack of photographical evidence has fueled online conspiracy theories about governments carrying out ethnic cleansing or depopulation on its own citizens. Reports of price gauging by businesses selling food, water, ice, gasoline, and other supplies are also being reported in many east Asian countries. We will keep you updated with more news as it comes in"_

The rest of the drive to the post office was slow and uneventful. The only other issues discussed on the radio were possible effects the monster had on regional weather, and whether or not a serious of minor earthquakes earlier this month recorded in a region that doesn't see much seismic activity could be attributed to the emergence of the monster.

* * *

4:45PM

What should have been about a 20 minute drive from the repair shop to the post office stretched into almost an hour due to traffic congestion. By the time we finally made it to the post office (and spent a small fortune on cab fair in the process), the entire place was being mobbed.

Unbeknownst to me (as usual) the confirmation of a second attack by the Godzilla monster spurred a run towards post offices by people who collect pension checks and welfare checks from the government, who believed that any money they could get could mean the difference between life or death. The fact that the second attack in Busan South Korea was confirmed in less then an hour before post offices closed for the day also contributed to the panic, since people feared that the post offices might not be open tomorrow.

As a result, close to 250 people were crowded around the entrance of the post office with just one police officer and a post office employee at the entrance trying to keep order. After getting out of the cab and paying the driver what he wanted, I managed to barely get through 10% of the crowd before it became impossible to advance further. The bodies of people larger and stronger than mine barred any ability to get closer to the entrance. I would have never made in had it not been for a chance encounter with a complete stranger

 **Guy** : "This is madness isn't it"  
I looked to my left towards the man who said that, who didn't seem to be speaking to anyone in particular.  
 **Me** : "I don't come here very often so I wouldn't know, but it sure seems like madness to me"  
 **Guy** : "You're not here to try to get a check or payment?"  
 **Me** : "No I'm actually just trying to get something from one of the lock boxes people reserve in their names"  
 **Guy** : "No way, so am I!"  
 **Me** : "Neat..."

I didn't know where else to go with the conversation and fell silent. The rate at which people were being allowed into the post office made it that it would be ages before I ever get in, even if the hours it stayed open were extended by an hour and a half.

 **Guy** : "I think I know a way we could get in, but I would need somebody to help me out. You interested?"

I took another look at the guy, this time with suspicion. I was hesitant to get swept up in the plan of a complete stranger, a plan that could very well be illegal, but with Hua still detained at the airport I didn't really have time as a luxury.

 **Me** : "What do you know?"  
 **Guy** : "There's a door to the side of the post office that a lot of employees use to take a smoke break. The door leads right to the area that has all the lockboxes, which is separated from the main reception area people go to when they are picking up a check"  
 **Me** : "You think we can get in through there?"  
 **Guy** : "The door automatically is locked, but they use a bootleg lock that is easy to get around. I just need someone to keep an eye out for the guard in case he checks the room"  
 **Me** : "How do you know all of this?"  
 **Guy** : "Oh, I used to work here about 8 months ago... So, you want to help me out?"

I weighed the options. On the one hand, if caught, the officer might not be able to pursue me since there were 200 other people about to break down the front door, and if I did get caught it might be trespassing at worst, assuming he didn't just let us leave... On the other hand, my luck has been bad enough that something far worse that I never even considered could certainly happen and cause everything to go horribly wrong.

At the end of the day though, I had to get the pen for Hua. His freedom depended on it. Depended on me.

 **Me** : "I'll follow you, try to blend with the crowd"  
 **Guy** : "Sounds good"

We made our way along the outer edges of the crowd towards the edge of the building, before breaking off from the crowd and hurrying into an alley. About halfway down the alley behind a dumpster there was a door with no windows, it led into the post office. I kept my head low as I followed the stranger towards the door, before he stopped just short of it

 **Guy** : "Ok this is the door. I'll try to shimmy it open, what I need you to do is peek through that side window right there and let me know if its clear.

I turned behind me and sure enough, there was a little side window along the building that didn't really have any business being there. It was probably installed in the post office before the buildings next door popped up, eliminating the need for a view into the alley. From the window, you could see just enough to view a hallway that led from the personal lock boxes to the main entrance. As I peered through, I noticed a guard standing inside the building along the hallway, facing out towards the front entrance.

 **Me** : "There's a guy, but he's facing towards the front entrance"  
 **Guy** : "Anyone else in the room?"  
 **Me** : (Peers around) "Don't think so"  
 **Guy** : "Is there anyone else in the room yes or no?"  
 **Me** : "I don't see anyone!"  
 **Guy** : "So then no"  
 **Me** : "Yes"  
 **Guy** : "Yes there is someone?"  
 **Me** : "No, there isn't anyone"  
 **Guy** : "You're sure"  
 **Me** : "YES"  
 **Guy** : "Okay, I'll get to work"

He took out a paperclip and a credit card (lord knows why he carried around a paperclip in his pocket) and tried to get past the lock. I kept vigilant by the window, keeping an eye on the guard standing near the entrance. In only a few minutes at most, he managed to jimmy open the door and motioned me to follow him in.

The room was filled with several hundred lockboxes that covered the walls almost to the ceiling. They were all organized according to name, and were barely big enough to store a single letter in them, let along any sort of package. The guy went off to one side of the room to look for his box, I broke off to the side to look for the other, which was in Hua's name. I kept out a nervous eye for the guard, who was right down the hallway still facing the main entrance. Any noise or click could alert him to our presence, though the noise from the crowd outside did provide us with some cover.

After looking around and checking for the guard, I finally found the right box, 'Ghenka, Hua'. I reached into my pocket for the piece of paper that had the password.

 _It wasn't there._

I checked my pocket thoroughly, then checked my other pocket. It was not there either. I pulled out Hua's phone and some cash that he gave me and sifted through it to see if it was clinging to the side of it, even though I could have sworn I kept it in my other pocket for safety. After emptying my pockets and looking around on the floor in case I somehow dropped it, there was no where else to look. I had lost the damn passcode.

I checked for the guard again and stared back at the lock, trying to remember the passcode from memory. The lock was a simple numerical lock where all you had to do was line up the 4 correct digits along a line in order to open the lock. I tried the first combination I could think of, 5-4-6-1

 _Didn't work_... I tried 5-4-1-6

 _Didn't work_

It was definitely 5-4-something-something, right? Or was it 5-something-4-something?

I tried another code, 5-1-4-6

 _It clicked._

I pulled opened the door in relief, glancing around the corner to see the guard still stationed at the front of the entrance. Inside the lockbox was a little envelope stuffed with what felt like bubblewrap. It was sealed, but while I couldn't see for myself that the pen was inside it, there was nothing else in the lockbox that could have had it. I snatched the package, closed the lockbox, and locked the lock to it.

 **Me** : "Psst, I got it!"

I turned around towards the other guy, but he was nowhere to be found. The room was empty, and the door leading outside was slightly ajar.

 _The $%# &er left me here!_

I turned around one last time. The guard had left his post, but was not anywhere in the hallway leading to the lockbox room. Not wasting a second, I carefully secured the little package in my pocket and quietly bolted for the door. I slipped through and quietly closed the door, feeling relief when I heard the automatic lock click as the door came to a complete shut.

In the split second of consciousness I had left, I failed to notice that the guy who helped me break into the post office in the first place was standing behind the door out of sight. Waiting for the door to close, he hoisted a brick up in the air and brought it down with crushing force onto my head, knocking me out.


End file.
